Lizzo Warns That Plus-Size Women Are Being Erased Amid “Ozempic Boom”

24 November 2024

Lizzo. Credit : Stefanie Keenan/Getty

In a deeply personal essay published on November 23, Grammy-winning artist Lizzo opened up about her own weight loss journey and expressed alarm at what she describes as the erasure of plus-size women in the era of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. The 37-year-old singer, who revealed she began losing weight during a period of profound depression in late 2023, says the cultural shift she’s witnessing is “urgent.”

In the essay titled “Why is everybody losing weight and what do we do? Sincerely, a person who’s lost weight,” Lizzo writes that although she currently weighs over 200 pounds, she remains a “proud big girl,” and still identifies with the plus-size community. But she warns that the momentum built around body-positivity and size inclusion is now in danger of collapsing under a renewed fetishisation of thinness powered by easy-access weight-loss medications. “So here we are halfway through the decade, where extended sizes are being magically erased from websites. Plus-sized models are no longer getting booked for modelling gigs. And all of our big girls are not-so-big anymore,” she writes. “We have a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the Ozempic boom.”

Lizzo’s essay is also a candid reflection on her mental-health struggles. She revealed that in 2023 she was deeply suicidal, and that her usual coping mechanism of binge-eating gave way to a commitment to therapy and Pilates a shift she describes as moving from “extreme inaction into action.” She writes that her weight had become a shield for years, a posture of defiance and protection. “People could not see my talent as a musician because they were too busy accusing me of making ‘being fat’ my whole personality,” she said. She goes on to critique the stereotype of the “mammy” body desexed, assumed always “fun” or non-threatening and how she had to counter it by being hypersexual and outspoken just to keep control of her body narrative.

She acknowledges the complexity of her own transformation while refusing simplistic readings. “Even though I start to lose weight I am still a big-girl,” she writes. Her concern is not only for herself but for the wider culture: the women who will never get the chance to exist visibly in their full size because the market and media are redirecting attention to the thinner end of the spectrum. The issue runs deeper than personal choice, she argues. It is about structural change, visibility and belonging.

Industry observers have already documented similar trends. According to recent reports, modelling agencies and fashion brands are pulling back on plus-size representation even as demand for size-diverse bodies once surged. One report cited that some plus-size models are shrinking, size-wise, to meet narrower definitions of what is “acceptable” for commercial work. Lizzo’s essay places this corporate regression into a personal context, the pressure to shrink is not simply cosmetic but cultural.

By framing the weight-loss-drug boom as a cultural inflection point rather than just a health trend, Lizzo plants a flag in the conversation about choice, identity and representation. She calls for the body-positivity movement to expand rather than retreat. “I want us to allow the body-positive movement to expand and grow far away from the commercial slop it’s become. Because movements move,” she writes. In doing so she signals that the movement must evolve beyond celebrity endorsements and product tie-ins, toward meaningful inclusion.

Another key dimension of Lizzo’s piece is the intersection of size with race and respect. As a Black woman with a large body, she has long faced reductive labels once “Queen of Thick,” then “Weight-Loss Sensation” and now something else entirely. Her observation is that losing weight did not resolve her relationship with self-worth rather it revealed how tethered identity had been to external visibility. Now she is calling out the groups, industries and systems that reward conformity rather than celebrate diversity.

The timing of Lizzo’s essay is significant. It appears in a moment when weight-loss drugs are becoming more accessible, media chatter about “big girls” is intensifying and fashion’s size-inclusivity claims are under renewed scrutiny. Lizzo writing at this juncture turns what might seem like a personal health story into a cultural critique. It positions her not just as a performer but as a spokesperson for a shifting social moment.

For fans and followers the message is clear: Lizzo is asking them to look inward not only at their bodies, but at the stories society tells about bodies. She is asking them to challenge the rising notion that thinner is automatically better or safer. And she is encouraging them to hold brands, media and culture accountable. The essay invites participation not only in solidarity but in action: the undoing of erasure, the resurrection of visibility and the reclamation of space for plus-size bodies.

As the conversation around body size, weight-loss drugs and representation accelerates, Lizzo’s perspective offers a bridge between lived experience and industry critique. Her words suggest that the real work is not just about dieting or acceptance, it is about refusing to let entire communities vanish because of a shifting cultural moment. And she wants those communities recognised, visible and vibrant.